Falling Forward
by Skipper96
Summary: Prompt: When I'm on the edge of insanity, I'd hope you'd come to save me.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Wow, it's been a while since I have posted anything. I feel like I've dropped off the face of the Earth. Well, I have no idea where this story is going to go, so without further ado let's get on with the show. **

**PS: I sadly do not own The Avengers because if I did I would be able to have a money swimming pool and thanks to MichaelaTheUchiha for editing this for me.**

**Natasha POV**

Two months had gone by since the formation of the Avengers. It had been two months since everything happened, both good and bad. In the weeks that followed Loki's destruction, we had been debriefed at least three times, Thor and his adopted brother had been sent on their merry way, and we had split and gone our separate ways. At least, that's what the council had thought happened to us after we saw Loki and Thor vanish in a flash of electric blue light. The only person who knows where we actually ended up is Fury, and I highly doubt he would give up out precise location.

Ever since SHIELD had let us off the Helicarrier, we had taken up residence in Stark Tower. I thought we'd only be here for a few days before we each went on our way, but what was originally supposed to be a few days quickly turned into a few weeks. Within those few weeks, we had become more then a team, we had become one of America's most dysfunctional families.

When we went from being a strictly a team of freaks who were called together to stop an alien invasion to a family was unknown to all of us, but we all seemed to know that we weren't simply "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" anymore. Well, almost all of us understood that. Clint hadn't associated with any of the team members since we got here. He barely even spoke to me. He spent the majority of his time sitting on the roof just watching the world go by.

He was starting to worry me. The first few days, he'd come down from the roof to get food and, if any of the other heroes spoke to him, he'd engage in a brief conversation with them before going back up to his nest, but, these days, we didn't even see him come down to raid the fridge. Clint is a loner by nature, but whatever happened when Loki took over his mind had changed him for the worse.

We had become accustomed to eating dinner as a group at least once a week; Steve had suggested that it might be a good way to get to know each other better. So far, Steve had been right, I feel like I know the members of this team better than I did when I trusted them to have my back during the invasion. The first few times we all ate together, I was able to make up excuses of why Clint wasn't eating with the rest of us. As time progressed, it became increasingly harder to explain to the rest of the team where the archer was during these meals.

"So," Tony said through a forkful of spaghetti, "where has Legolas run off to now?"

"You know exactly where Barton is, Stark," I grit out.

"Oh, I know where he is, I just don't get why he spends all his time crouched on that roof for hours staring at nothing."

"I don't get it either," Bruce added, "I know he was most effected by Loki, but he's had months to deal with that and I know from personal experience that it will do him more harm than good to keep everything that he's feeling bottled up inside. It seems, to me, that he doesn't want to be here."

The other two heroes nodded in agreement, and if I wasn't the one that theses remarks directed at I would have agreed with them too because Clint was making no effort to integrate himself with the rest of the team. Normally, by this point, he was at least making an attempt at relating to whoever he was trying to deal with; that's what had happened when I first met him. He let me be for a couple months then, he slowly started to linger around me more often and before I knew it, we had become partners.

That's the approach I thought Clint was using. He was going to watch the team from a distance for a couple months, and then he would slowly make his presence known to the rest of the Avengers. He would become the Clint Barton that I know and love with the rest of the team, but that hasn't happened yet and it was causing me to worry. The rest of the meal was spent in a tense silence, mainly due to the fact I was glaring daggers at the rest of the team.

Normally, after these meals I would help clean up, before taking a plate of the food up to Clint. This time, I just made up a plate of spaghetti and made my way up to the roof. Clint was sitting in exactly the same position he had been when I brought him up a sandwich earlier that day. He was crouched on the ledge, bow grasped tightly in his right hand, quiver sitting on the ground beside him, and he was just watching the world go by.

"You know," I said, making my presence known, "you could just sit down there with us and not say a word. I think that would at least make them stop pestering me, for a few days."

"Doing one thing would lead to another," he replied without looking away from the skyline.

I calmly walked over to him and handed him the plate of food. He changed his position so that his legs were hanging over the edge now. I jumped up on the ledge next to him. We both sat in silence, Clint busy with analyzing the horizon while I inspected him. He had taken a few bites of the pasta when he first received the plate, but now he was just pushing it around with his fork. I knew he was either having trouble sleeping or wasn't sleeping at all: one look at the dark smudges under his eyes told me that.

"What?" he asked when he noticed me studying him.

"Just admiring the view," I said, trying to get a rise out of him.

Clint looked at me for a split second before going back to shoving the sauce covered noodles around on his plate. He spent another five minutes playing with his food before he hopped down from the ledge and began striding towards the elevator.

"We're watching Lord of the Rings tonight if you want to join," I said hopefully.

Clint waved a hand at me in acknowledgement before disappearing inside the building.

He had left the half eaten plate of spaghetti sitting perilously on the edge of the building. I sighed heavily and picked up the plate. That's when I noticed that Clint had turned his food into a work of art. Some of the noodles were placed in such a way that they looked like arrows while others appeared to be in the shape of people. He had spread the marinara sauce around the people-like-shapes in such a way that it resembled blood. Clint was more of a mess then I originally thought he was.

**A/N: Well that's all for this chapter. I hope to have the next one up soon. Although I have no idea where I'm going to go with this, so if you have any requests PM them to me. I'd love to hear your feed back to click the button at the bottom of the page please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Summer vacation is good for so many reasons; the abundance of free time is one of them. Thanks to all of you who viewed my story and I hope I can continue to write this to the best of my ability. Now, that's enough rambling from me, now on with the show. **

**PS. Thanks to MichaelaTheUchiha for editing this for me.**

**Clint POV**

As always, I heard her before I saw her. There had been a couple times that she was able to get the jump on me, but that was early on in our partnership. After the first three times she scared the bejesus out of me, I decided to train myself to be able to pick out Tasha's footsteps in a crowd, and she hasn't snuck up on me since then.

"You know," she said, breaking the silence between us, "you could just sit down there with us and not say a word. I think that would at least make them stop pestering me, for a few days."

"Doing one thing would lead to another," I replied coolly.

I could feel the frustration radiating off of her as she strolled over to me. She plopped a plate full of spaghetti with marinara sauce down on my lap before she hopped up on the ledge beside me. At first, the aroma of the pasta was intoxicating, but a few bites into the pile of noodles, I lost my appetite. I could feel Nat's green eyes boring into me as I nudged the blood soaked noodles around my plate. I allowed Nat to study me for a few more seconds before I snapped at her.

"What?"

She paused for a moment before she said, "Just admiring the view."

I knew she was just trying to get a rise out of me. She knew I couldn't resist it when she spoke before she thought. But, this time, I just wasn't in the mood. So I shot her a quick sideways glance and went back to making a masterpiece with my food. I didn't realize, until I was done, that I had turned the noodles into arrows and people while the marinara sauce became the innocent blood that I spilled. The image on the plate made me feel sick, so I wordlessly set the plate down and gracefully jumped down from the ledge. I had just jabbed the elevator button when Natasha spoke.

"We're watching Lord of the Rings tonight if you want to join."

I could hear the hope that tainted her words and I almost told her I'd be there, but then something in the back of my mind stopped me from complying. I raised a hand to show that I had heard her before I stepped into elevator.

I pushed the button for the floor above the basement. The team rarely occupied that floor, so I was safe from having to engage in any unwanted conversations. From whatever floor I was on, I took the stairs up to where my room was located. It took me an extra five minutes to get to my lair, but it was worth it.

On my trip from the roof to my room, I contemplated about what Natasha knew. She probably knew that I barely slept; when I did fall asleep, it wasn't for long and I would occasionally doze off on the roof until the noise from the street below woke me up. She had probably guessed that I only eat to please her, to keep her from worrying about me because I'm fine.

I silently slipped into my room without earning the attention of any of the other members, who were all gathered in living room. It had taken me some time, but I was finally able to disable JARVIS's sensors that were embedded in the walls of the tower. One uniquely designed arrow shot through the wall that broke the attached wires behind the dry wall, which cut all of its connections to my room.

I closed and locked the door behind me before I set my bow and quiver down beside the chair that held an unpacked bag of my meager belongings. I unceremoniously shoved the bag off of the chair and moved the chair across the room until it was directly underneath the air vent.

I stood up on the chair, carefully removed the cover plate and dropped it on the ground with a metal thud. I, then, proceeded to clamber up in to the dark metal tube. Crawling through air vents was my specialty. I spent my nights during the first two weeks of my stay at Stark Tower learning how to navigate through the air vents. I couldn't sleep anyway, so I thought I might as well do something productive.

I army-crawled though the tight space, my movements were careful and calculated since I wasn't sure if the air vents were sound proof. I aimlessly wandered around the tower via the vents for a while. No one would ever be able to find me when I'm up here, even if Nat did suspect that I stalking around in the ceiling, she would have no means of getting me down. The rest of the Avengers, even with the combine genius power of Bruce and Tony, wouldn't even think to check the air ducts. I was safe up here.

I made my way around the tower a couple times before I headed for the vent that overlooked the living room. As I approached the vent, I slowed the pace of my crawl down to how fast an army-crawling newbie would go. I peered out the slotted metal and found myself looking straight at the giant television screen. They were about halfway through the movie. I glanced around at the rest of the team. Tony was fighting over the bowl of popcorn with Bruce as he proceeded to throw some of the popped kernels in Steve's general direction. Natasha was sitting on the couch next to Steve, her arms crossed across her chest, alternating from glaring daggers at the screen to shooting them at Tony.

I continued lying in there for the remainder of the movie. I wasn't really watching it though; I was paying more attention to the dynamics of the team. The way they were all so at ease around each other, Natasha had partially dropped her guard faster with the people who made up this wayward team then she had with me. Just as the credits started playing, I slowly backed father into the darkness of the air duct so I wouldn't be stopped by Natasha's well trained eyes. I stayed completely still as everyone headed off to their rooms. Nat paused just below the vent and looked up, for a second I thought my location had been compromised, my whole body tensed up until I heard the sound of her footsteps retreat down the hallway. I always have seen better from a distance.

**A/N: So that's all for now folks, I hope to have the next chapter up as soon as I can. Thanks for reading! **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here we are again folks. Thanks again to all of you who have read my story, I hope you enjoy chapter 3.**

**PS: Thanks to MichaelaTheUchiha and SherlockMoriartyHouse500IQ for editing my story.**

**Natasha POV**

Clint had been trying for some time to get me to watch Lord of the Rings. He had asked me multiple times, especially after a tough mission, to come watch it with him. He pestered me about a thousand times before I finally confronted him about his motives for watching this movie religiously after particularly strenuous missions. His response was simple. "It helps me unwind," he had told me.

That's why I suggested we pop this fantasy action flick into the DVD player after Tony had declared that is was movie night. I had high hopes that when Clint heard we were watching his favorite movie he would come down from his nest and crouch in the back of the room, where he would see everyone and their intentions along with the screen.

No such thing happened. At first I thought he was slinking in the shadows, scoping out where he wanted to position himself in the ideal viewing spot. When twenty minutes went by and Clint hadn't materialized from the shadows, I knew he had either left or wasn't going to make an appearance. Logic, from what I already knew about Clint, told me it was the latter.

Once I knew Clint wasn't coming, I turned my full attention back to the images flickering across the screen. The movie was mildly entertaining. I should have listened to Clint when he told me I would enjoy it. And I would have enjoyed it more if watching the movie involved just watching it and not having to deal with banter between Tony, Bruce, and Steve, and as normal it was ensued by Iron Man himself. I spent the entire film glaring daggers at Stark, who spent the movie flicking popcorn everywhere and assuming an innocent expression.

When the credits started rolling across the screen, everyone started moving around, but through all the bustle in the living room, I heard something coming from just over my left shoulder. The distinct sound of a boot scuffing metal. As I walked towards my room, I paused briefly below the air vent and stole a glance upwards. Clint does see better from a distance.

Sleep was still hard to come by. Even with the comforting thought of Loki being worlds away wasn't enough to keep the nightmares and terrifying 'what if' thoughts at bay. Tonight happened to be one of those 'what if' nights. I was able to sleep fairly well until a nagging thought awoke me at around four thirty. Most of those thoughts revolved around Clint.

I couldn't even provide an estimated guess as to how long Clint had been watching from inside the safety of the air ducts. It was clear to me that Clint wanted to integrate himself with the rest of the team, but there was something holding him back. Every time I brought up the subject of him joining the rest of us for whatever we were going to be doing together, he would just shrug me off, but I could see from the whirlpool of emotions swirling in his eyes, that he wanted to. He wanted to be here, there was just some thought in that thick skull of his that was holding him back from truly being present.

Twenty minutes of tossing and turning later and I gave up on the whole sleep thing, due to the fact that my mind was fully awake now. It figured was pointless for me to just sit and stare at the wall for three hours, so I got up and headed off to find Clint. I was optimistic that Clint would open up to me since he knew the other members wouldn't be around to barge in on our conversation.

I could have asked JARVIS about Clint's whereabouts. As long as he wasn't in the air ducts, JARVIS would be able to pick him up with his sensors. But, asking the AI would defeat all the fun I would have in finding the resident archer. The first place I checked was the roof. Clint loved the peace and quiet of that nighttime brought, even in the city that never sleeps. I was astonished to discover that Clint was not occupying his perch. I did a quick walk around the rooftop to make sure that he was hiding out in the shadows. He was nowhere to be seen.

Well, I guess that leaves me with the second place he was most likely to be at quarter to five in the morning, the workout room. When Stark Tower was acquiring repairs from the damage received during the battle, Stark had made sure to add a few improvements to the training room. Some were minor improvements, like the stronger punching bags for Steve, but Stark is known for taking every little project he starts above and beyond expectations.

This project he took on in renovating the basement workout room involved him knocking out a wall and extending the room by fifteen feet. He then installed an array of targets; some of them were on the ceiling, somewhere attached to the wall, while others were moveable. Stark had made an indoor archery field for the Hawk.

My heart plummeted when I walked into the dark room and didn't see Clint. My first thought was that he was crawling somewhere above me. Where he was unreachable. I strolled a bit further into the room, just to make sure he wasn't hiding in a corner. I went to the center of the archery ring and peered around. Suddenly, a projectile came whizzing by my head, it flew by just inches from my year. My assassin instincts kicked in and I ducked while simultaneously reaching for where my gun should be at my waist, when I remembered that I didn't bring it with me.

I looked up just in time to see Clint jumping gracefully down from the rafters. I glanced over my shoulder to see an arrow sticking out of the bull's eye of one of the targets. Clint's ability never ceased to amaze me.

"I was wondering when you were going to wander down here," Clint broke the silence as he knocked another arrow.

"Couldn't sleep," I explained. "How long have you been up?"

He shrugged and rapidly fired three arrows, one after another, at different targets. Each one hitting its designated mark, in the center of the targets. Shrugging meant in Clint speak, "I've been up all night, Nat." He shot off another round of arrows before I spoke again.

"Come on Clint, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," He replied sharply.

I clenched my hands into fists at that statement. I could feel my blood beginning to boil in frustration with his lie, but I had to keep up the calm demeanor or Clint would run off, shut himself down, and lock me - and everybody else - out.

"You are most definitely not fine," I said calmly, but sternly. "I know you're barely eating and not sleeping, you spend all your time sitting on the roof or crawling around in the ceiling, so don't you dare lie to me Barton, by saying you are fine."

When he spun around and faced me, his storms colored eyes were blazing with anger. It almost made me want to break eye contact with him. He exhaled slowly as he studied me, as I stood staring at him with my usual stoic expression, though nervousness was setting in as I saw his furious expression. Then his expression suddenly changed, to a look that made me feel unsettled.

"You don't know me," he said in a low, dangerous tone, before he roughly pushed past me, and walked into the shadows.

**A/N: So, what did you guys think? Review and let me know. Till next time my friends!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Well, I got this chapter out fast. Thanks to SherlockMoriartyHouse500IQ, my wonderful editor, for editing this for. Now, on with the next chapter!**

**JARVIS POV**

I was not needed until ten-thirty Am on the dot, as that is when Mr. Stark awoke. As per usual his first request of the day was for me to turn the lights on low. His next request inquired how many of the other Avengers were up. I reported to him that all members of the team were up; Captain Rodgers and Dr. Banner were in the kitchen preparing breakfast, while Agent Romanov was in the workout room. Agent Barton was perched on the roof.

Mr. Stark grumbled his acknowledgement before getting up and shuffling into the master bath. I adjusted the water temperature of Mr. Stark's shower to his liking and shut off the water when he was done. He stuck to his usual schedule of walking with a fair amount of swagger into the kitchen.

"Is that bacon I smell cooking?" He queried as he sniffed the air.

"Glad to see you could join us Tony," Captain Rogers said as he swatted Mr. Stark's hand away from the bacon and then proceeded to flip the pancakes he was making.

Mr. Stark pouted and rubbed the reddening spot on his hand as he sat down at the table across from Dr. Banner, who was ignoring the banter by reading the paper. Mr. Stark waited for approximately one minute before he began being his normal self.

"So, Cap, is the food ready yet? Hey, Bruce whatcha readin'?" He fired off questions without waiting for an answer.

Dr. Banner tilted his paper downwards just enough so that he could glare at Mr. Stark over the edge while Captain Rogers huffed and put the last of the pancakes on the plate. He carried over loaded platefuls of scrambled eggs, crispy rashers of bacon and golden pancakes, and placed them in the center of the table. The plates were on the table a split second before Mr. Stark was shoveling the food on to his own plate.

"Now," Mr. Stark said between enormous mouthfuls of syrup doused pancake. "Where are the assassins?"

The members occupying the table all shrugged in response.

"JARVIS?" Mr. Stark asked.

"Agent Romanov is in the workout room and my sensors cannot pick up Agent Barton anymore. He had been sitting on the roof, until he left ten minutes ago," I replied.

"Well, that's not out of the ordinary," Dr. Banner said. "Natasha always trains before she comes up here and Barton is either on the roof or in his room."

"At least she acknowledges our presence," Mr. Stark grumbled.

"What do you mean by that, Tony?" Captain Rogers asked.

"Well, we never see Barton and if we get the honor of being graced with his presence he won't engage in conversation and he doesn't make eye contact. There's something seriously wonky about that guy."

Captain Rodgers and Dr. Banner both looked at Mr. Stark with blank expressions.

"What?" Mr. Stark asked. "None of you find something just a bit off with him?"

Silence stretched over the group as Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner contemplated Mr. Stark's words. The silence between them lasted several minutes.

"I think that Agent Barton is… different," Captain Rogers murmured carefully.

"Different? That doesn't even being to describe that guys problems," Mr. Stark responded pointedly.

"Tony, his mind was being controlled by some crazy space freak," Captain Rogers said calmly.

Mr. Stark crossed his arms across his chest glared at Dr. Banner until he lowered the news paper.

"I'm not getting involved with this," Dr. Banner said calmly.

"Come on Bruce, we need your opinion on this…" Mr. Stark whined like a petulant child.

Dr. Banner sighed while he slowly folded up the paper, and set it down on the table.

"Fine, you want my opinion?" Bruce said. "I think Barton is just trying to come to terms with what Loki did to him. I believe that his way of dealing with what happened to him is to disconnect himself from the world."

"Maybe…" Captain Rodgers said.

"JARVIS,"

"Yes, Sir," I responded.

"Over the past few weeks, what has Barton been up to and where was he?"

"Would you like me to go over his daily routine, Sir?"

"Sure, why not."

"Agent Barton watches the sunrise from his rooftop perch each morning. He crouches in the same position on the ledge, until Agent Romanov comes up with a lunch at around twelve-thirty. Both agents sit on the ledge while Agent Barton eats, and occasionally, if Agent Barton is in a good mood, they will have a brief conversation.

"Agent Romanov leaves the roof between one o'clock and one-fifteen and Agent Barton goes back to his crouched position on the ledge. The same cycle occurs after dinner. Agent Barton watches the sun set before heading back into his room. At around one or two in the morning, Agent Barton will emerge from his room and either goes back up to the roof or down to training room for target practice."

"How long has that been going on?" Captain Rogers asked.

"Agent Barton has been following that cycle for fifty-seven days."

The team was remained silent for several minutes as they mulled over my words.

"Am I the only one here who doesn't trust this guy?" Mr. Stark exclaimed.

Dr. Banner and Captain Rogers simultaneously gave Mr. Stark stunned looks.

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions here," Captain Rogers started uneasily.

"Now don't get me wrong," Mr. Stark interrupted. "He was fantastic during the invasion, but I don't see how we can trust a guy that won't even make eye contact with us."

"Tony, it's not like it was his fault Loki chose him to be his personal killing machine. His mind's unstable, but you know he's trying to recover," Dr. Banner said.

"I know that," Mr. Stark said. "But Barton walks around here eyeing everyone suspiciously when it's us you should be watching him. How do we know that Romanov smacked his head hard enough to chase Rock of Ages out?"

"It's been two months Tony," Captain Rogers said.

"Yeah two months of Barton slinking around here uttering only one word answers to us and never staring the conversation."

"You do have a point Tony," Dr. Banner said.

"But," Captain Rogers interjected. "Agent Barton is a professional sniper, his mind functions different than ours. He needs more space and more time to adjust to the whole team setting. He's used to being a lone-wolf."

"Yet another reason not to trust him," Mr. Stark said. "He could kill us from a distance, easily…"

"Sir," I said.

"Not now JARVIS. Since he's 'Robin Hood on steroids' no one in the building would hear the shot and by the time JARVIS let out an alert he would be gone, never to be seen again."

"Sir."

"Not now JARVIS! If it wasn't for the other master assassin that was living here too I would have kicked his ass outta here on day one! The guy's just a danger to us all, with his 'unstable mind' as Brucie here puts it!"

Mr. Stark took the silence that greeted his statements as an unspoken response of agreement from the other team members. What Mr. Stark didn't know was that my heat sensors had just picked up the subtle raise of the temperature near the air vent cover just above the kitchen table.

**A/N: That's all for this chapter folks. I hope I can get chapter 5 posted soon. Thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing my story. Till next time guys!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hi there folks! Thanks to SherlockMoriartyHouse500IQ for the idea in this chapter and editing it for me. Now on with the show!**

**Clint POV**

I've learned a lot about the team even though I've never engaged myself in a conversation that lasted more the five minutes with any of them. When I wasn't on the roof, I was mindlessly crawling through the air ducts and I would accidentally stumble upon one of the team members. When I first came across Tony and Bruce working in the lab, I was hesitant to stick around too long simply because I was afraid of being detected by them or JARVIS, but after a few weeks I learned that the members of the team didn't bother to look for me up to find me and even with all of JARVIS's fancy sensors he couldn't detect me up here. With that bit of knowledge, I began to linger around the team more often from above. The idea of being there, but not engaged in any contact, made me still feel involved.

Over that last few months I found out the Steve loved to draw and he was pretty good at it too. He could also only take so much of Tony's antics before he retreated into his room to doodle about whatever he's thinking of at the time. Out of all the team members, I found that Steve's quiet and peaceful demeanor was relaxing. Even though I was just watching and not interacting with him, I felt at ease around Steve then I did with any of the other members; other than Natasha of course.

Tony and Bruce spent most of their time in the lab. I could never tell what they were working on whenever they worked together, but the end product was always the same, something exploded. As long as Tony wasn't poking and prodding Bruce, the doctor was a pretty relaxed guy. But, he knew too much of what it was like to be controlled, that meant he would have an easier time reading my emotions. That was dangerous for me. Tony on the other hand was too wound up with showing off to everybody to even care about getting inside my head.

Nat spent her time whenever I vanished, either training or playing Rockband with the team when Tony deemed it necessary. She also seemed to be pretty close to Bruce. I had once found her teaching Bruce some basic self defense skills. A few days after the invasion, she had spent one of her sleepless nights talking softly with him until the early hours of the morning.

This morning I had been up on the roof long enough to watch the sunrise before I headed off to the air vents. I was not in the mood to face Natasha at the moment. When I pulled myself up into the vents, I didn't have a destination in mind. I aimlessly crawled around in the metal tubes that snaked around Stark Tower.

I wandered around blindly for a couple hours before I found myself peering down on the kitchen table. Tony, Steve, and Bruce were sitting around the table enjoying pancakes and talking about something. I only caught the tail end of what Bruce was saying.

"…unstable, but you know he's trying to recover."

'What in the world are they talking about?' I wondered.

"I know that," Tony replied. "But Barton walks around here eyeing everyone suspiciously when it's us you should be watching him. How do we know that Romanov smacked his head hard enough to chase Rock of Ages out?"

My eyes widened in shock; they were talking about me.

"It's been two months Tony," Steve sighed.

"Yeah two months of Barton slinking around here uttering only one word answers to us and never starting a conversation," Tony stated bitterly.

"You do have a point Tony," Bruce said slowly.

"But," Steve interjected. "Agent Barton is a professional sniper, his mind functions different than ours. He needs more space and more time to adjust to the whole team setting. He's used to being a lone-wolf."

"Yet another reason not to trust him," Tony said. "He could kill us from a distance, easily…"

"Sir," JARVIS droned.

"Not now JARVIS. Since he's 'Robin Hood on steroids' no one in the building would hear the shot and by the time JARVIS let out an alert he would be gone, never to be seen again."

"Sir," JARVIS tried again.

"Not now JARVIS! If it wasn't for the other master assassin that was living here too I would have kicked his ass outta here on day one! The guy's just a danger to us all, with his 'unstable mind' as Brucie here puts it!" Tony said angrily.

My breathing sped up as I backed away from the vent cover. The only thought in my head was 'they don't trust me.' I stumbled back through the metal tubing. I honestly didn't care where I was going. I just knew I wasn't safe here anymore. I wasn't safe anywhere anymore, not even in my own head.

I had quit paying attention to where I was going about five air vent covers back. Both my mind and body were synchronized on a single thing: escaping. I didn't care where I was going; I just knew I had to get away from here.

I paused at a fork in the air duct tunnels, trying to figure out where exactly I was in the building. I sighed and shifted my weight from arm to arm ever so slightly and leaned into side of the tube. I heard a creak and before I could even register the sound, the metal I was leaning against vanished and I was tumbling downwards. The wind was knocked out of me as I landed hard on what I thought was the top of another air duct. I shifted my body as I tried to get up, but the slight shift in position sent me sliding down a diagonal piece of metal. I tried to grab hold of the sides of the wall, but my fingers scraped across nothing but unblemished metal. I frantically searched around me, trying to find any sort of indication of where I had landed. But, the only thing that met my eyes was darkness.

The panic set in when I smashed through some kind of wall. One second there was a solid surface bellow me and the next I was free falling. My hands fumbled wildly above me, trying to find something to grab hold of in order to stop my fall. Suddenly, my hand snagged on some kind of ledge. I was hanging on the side of Stark Tower. I stole a glance upwards to see that I would be able to climb up on to the roof if I wanted to, but I knew I would be a dead man if I were to let go. But what if I did let go…..

It was crystal clear to me from the conversation I had just heard that I wasn't trusted. No one trusted me, Natasha was a master of disguise, she could slip in and out of personas with the snap of a finger, even I couldn't it was her when she was pretending to be someone else. She could easily be deceiving me right now.

My mind makes me a liability. Bruce is right, it's still unstable, Loki may be gone, but the effects from that little game he played with my mind had left scars. The Avengers don't need me around, there are five other freaks that are way more qualified then I am. Why should I stick around here if I'm damaged?

I began to release the death grip my fingers had on the ledge. I could feel my fingers slide off the cement. Nobody wants something broken on their team.

**A/N: Well, what's going to happen to Clint? I guess you'll just have to wait till next time. Thanks for reading. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Well, here we are again folks. I can't believe I've actually made it to chapter 6! Thanks to SherlockMoriartyHouse500IQ and Mr. Bee for editing this for me. Now, on with the show!**

**Natasha POV**

After Clint left me alone in the workout room I did a brief work out before heading to the showers. After that I followed my normal morning routine, skipping the usual part where I went to visit Clint. I found the team sitting around the kitchen table; they were all eating pancakes quietly which was not out of the ordinary. I said good morning to them as I headed to the fridge. As I was getting the orange juice bottle out of the fridge, I glanced over my shoulder at the team. The way they were acting was normal, but something was off. Tony wasn't trying to annoy Bruce out of reading the paper and Steve… For some reason, Steve was looking oddly guilty. What did he have to be guilty about?

I sat down and plopped a couple of pancakes and bacon strips onto my plate. As I was eating my food, Steve kept getting more and more fidgety. He was wringing his hands or fiddling with his fork and he wouldn't make eye contact with me. I was about to inquire the reason as to why he was so jittery when Steve suddenly spoke up.

"Tony called Clint... Robin Hood on steroids."

I raised an ey brow at that. Tony calling Clint names was not unusual. He was always making up new names for Clint; something else was going on here.

At this point Tony was glaring daggers at Steve while tapping his fork on his plate. Steve was looking increasingly nervous with every ticking second. Bruce was now trying to hide behind his paper. I checked to make sure he wasn't Hulking-out, but he was still reassuringly tanned, he was just unnerved like the others.

"What on Earth is going on here?" I exclaimed, annoyed.

They all looked around at each other anxiously before Steve finally caved in to my glaring.

"Well, uhhhh…"

"Get on with it, Rogers," I barked impatiently.

"Tony, uhhh, said that, ummm, Clint…."

That's when we all heard a metallic clang. The sound echoed through the whole tower and even before the odd sound registered with the rest of the team, I was up and running to the stairs. There was only one thing that I knew of in the tower that could make that sound and I knew that sound all too well - one of the air ducts had collapsed.

The last time this had happened we were on the Helicarrier. Clint was harassing the new recruits with a paintball gun when the vents caved in. I remember finding Clint tangled up in metal with various scrapes and cuts and paint dripping from his hair.

This time was different though. This time I had no idea where Clint was. Last time I knew the general location of where he would be, but this time he could be anywhere. I could hear the team following me. I could hear Tony saying something to JARVIS.

"ROMANOV," Steve called up the stairs. "HE'S HANGING OFF THE ROOF!"

I burst on to the roof and swept my panicked gaze around the roof.

"JARVIS, Where is he?"

"Agent Barton is hanging off the south side of the tower."

I made it to the edge of the roof just in time to see Clint's fingers slip from ledge he was holding on to. My heart plummeted as I saw Clint fall. My hand instantly shot out and latched on to his wrist. I breathed out a sigh of relief and grabbed his other wrist with my hand. I slowly started to haul Clint up. At first I thought he was unconscious since he wasn't even bothering to help me. Then I noticed that his eyes were locked on the ground.

"Hey, Clint," I said softly but firmly. "Look at me, please."

His stormy gaze gradually met my eyes and the emotions I saw swirling in them shocked me. He stared at me with such a haunted look that I felt goose bumps crawl up my arms. I finally pulled him over the ledge and we landed in an ungraceful heap on the roof. I gingerly pushed Clint off of me and got up. Clint didn't move to get up; he just lay there, staring up at the sky.

"What do you think you were doing?" I asked frantically.

He just continued to stare at the clouds that were passing by and ignore me.

"I know for a fact that you could have pulled yourself up, but you didn't, what did they do Clint? Huh? What did they say to you?"

"Nothing," he said distractedly.

"Don't pull that nothing crap on my Clint, I know you and I know that something is off, just tell me what it is and maybe I can help you," I begged. I was pleading with him now.

Clint sprung to his feet so fast that he startled me.

"They didn't do anything to me," Clint exclaimed while throwing his hands up in the air. "Do you know why I don't interact with them? Do you know why I make sure I don't run into any of them in the hallways? Huh? Do ya? Well, I'll tell you! It's because they don't trust me. They look at me like I could snap and kill them at any moment!"

"Clint…" I said softly, saddened by their mistrust in him, although it wasn't unnoticeable.

"No, don't bother trying to relate to me. You fit in just fine with them. They don't look at you like you're about to go all assassin on them, they treat you like an equal!"

"Oh and what have you been doing to show them that they can trust you? Nothing. You sit on the roof all day and mope. And then what happens when you're hanging off the side of a building you decide it's a good idea to let go? What were you thinking Clint?"

Clint stood there clenching and unclenching his hands. Glaring at me and then, all of a sudden, he was staring at something over my shoulder. The anger in his eyes instantly changed to panic. I slowly turned around to see the team staring at Clint, dumbfounded.

I glanced back at Clint to find that he wasn't there anymore. I quickly went to the ledge to see if Clint had jumped only to hear the door to the stairs slam shut. I rushed after him.

"JARVIS, where is he?"

"I do not know Agent Romanov," the AI replied coolly.

I paced the length of the living room for a few minutes. I was so focused on Clint that I didn't hear the team come up behind me.

"Where do you want us to start looking?" Bruce asked. I jumped slightly, but recovered. I turned to look at them.

"Okay, I know he wouldn't go back up to the roof, so start checking all the rooms, closets, and stair wells. Maybe the air vents too, but that's unlikely."

We frantically searched the whole building for hours and came up with nothing. JARVIS didn't even pick up any heat signatures in the air ducts. There was only one place that we hadn't checked yet: Clint's room.

"JARVIS," Tony said to his AI. "Decode the lock on this door, and tell us why you can't pick up a heat signature in there."

"Sir, Agent Barton has cut off all of my communications to his room."

There was a soft click and the door opened. All of us just stared into his room, stunned. His room was completely empty. Everything was gone, including his bow.

"Stark," I said dangerously, turning to him, my fists clenched. He stepped backwards. "What. Did. You. Do?"

**A/N: Well, where has Clint run off to now? I guess you'll just have to wait till next time to find out. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Wow, it's been awhile. Vacation is both a curse and a blessing, good for relaxing but bad for writing time. Thanks so much to Penguin and** **MichaelaTheUchiha for editing this for me. Now, on with the chapter!**

**Clint POV**

City lights always screw up the night sky. They create a layer between my eyes and the stars. But the stars that I could see brought some much needed peace to my frenzied mind. The stars on this roof looked different than they did on Stark Tower. Maybe it was because more light was coming from Times Square here. I didn't really care, the tiny white lights were calming, and I stared at them for hours as my mind wandered. I just wished it would wander to paradise for once. Instead, it meandered back to what had transpired a few hours ago.

I was mortified when I saw the rest of the team standing behind Nat. I didn't know what to do. They had just seen me practically break down. They must have thought I was even weaker. I could feel my heart pounding; my breathing was speeding up. I had to get out of there. The second Natasha turned around, I bolted. I made a mad dash for the door. I flung the door open and rushed down the stairs; my mind was quickly flipping through every hiding spot I had found in the tower so far. Every hiding spot that I had would either be easily accessible by the team or was in JARVIS's line of sight. I was reaching panic mode when I finally thought of the one place they wouldn't look.

I quickly punched the pass code into the electronic key pad that was outside the door of my room. I roughly turned the door knob, pushed the door open, and slipped inside. I leaned against the back of the door plotting my next move. I knew that at some point Nat would come and check here, but I had at least an hour until my door would be decoded.

So I did the only thing I knew how to do: I disappeared. I grabbed the bag with my stuff off the chair, removed the vent cover, and I shoved my bag in the vent. I strapped my quiver to my back and looped my bow around my shoulder. I scrambled into the air duct and replaced the vent cover.

I remained completely still for hours, waiting for the sound of the door opening. After hours of leaning against the metal, I finally heard the sound of the door opening. I could hear whispers coming from the doorway, and I could picture Natasha's stunned face as she looked around the empty room. I wanted nothing more than to jump out of the air vent and yell "SURPRISE"! But I knew I couldn't do that; I wasn't trusted by any of the team and it was made clear to me that Tony didn't like me, so why should I hang around his tower and be a nuisance to all of them?

I spent about another hour in the duct before I climbed down. I silently slipped out of the tower and disappeared into the early evening sun. I wandered the city streets for a few hours before I climbed up the fire escape of an apartment building to the roof, where I continued to watch the city go by.

I was lying in the center of the roof with my hands behind my head. My quiver was by my side and my bow was resting across my chest. I began to watch the clouds float by, diming out the moon. Eventually, the clouds turned into counting sheep, and I was fast asleep within the hour.

The floor beneath my feet was spongy; occasionally, I would step in some sort of puddle. I couldn't tell what I was walking in, due to the lack of light. I could hear whispers all around me. My bow and quiver had vanished from their normal spot across my chest. I walked cautiously across the strange floor.

The farther I walked into the darkness, the louder and closer the whispers got. Whatever substance that was covering the floor began to grow deeper, it was wet and warm.

All of a sudden, it went silent. The whispers stopped and my body went rigid; I froze. I was on high alert for any little sound, every small movement. I scanned the darkness around me, searching for any movement, for any living thing that could be out there.

Then it got slightly brighter. Mist swirled around me and the liquid began to bubble and rise. Through the mist, I could see figures walking towards me. I tried to move, but the liquid that was crawling up my ankles was sticking to me, sucking me into the ground.

The figures were getting closer. They seemed to be floating over the liquid. They were creating a circle around me. The closer they got the more I squirmed in the sticky liquid. I could feel the liquid begin to slither up my legs. I looked down at my feet to see what was binding them there. I was horrified to see oozing, bubbling blood.

I looked up at the figures around me. They now bore the faces of Coulson, Ridgeway, Lakewood, Randolf, and all the other agents that I had killed on the helicarrier. Blood was still dripping from the wounds that had killed them, their eyes were all asking the same question, "Why Clint, why did you attack? Why didn't you fight against Loki harder?"

The ghosts were slinking closer to me with every passing second. I could feel the warm, sticky, blood soaking through my clothes. Something wet splashed on my head. A drop splashed in my eye; I raised my hand to wipe it off and I was shocked to find them covered in blood that was dripping off my fingers. I glanced up to see that the clouds had turned red and it was raining blood.

The ghosts were inches away from me, their eyes were pleading with me, begging me to tell them why. To tell Ridgeway why I took him away from their family. To explain to Lakewood why I left his wife and newborn daughter without a husband and a father. They were all crowding around me, waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm so sorry."

I could feel tears leak out of my eyes. The ghosts stopped their advance. They looked at me with their sad gaze and shook their heads. Then they opened their mouths to reveal fangs dripping with blood, and they hissed as they attacked me. I could feel their teeth digging into to my arm, their nails scratching me, but there was nothing I could do to escape.

I woke up screaming and bolted into a sitting position. I could feel tears pricking at the edges of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head on my knees. I let my breathing slow down before I looked up again. Judging by amount of light in the sky it was about four am. There was no point in me trying to go back to sleep, so I paced the roof. As hard as I tried the vivid images from my dream were haunting my mind. I don't think I'd be sleeping for awhile.

I grabbed my bow and strapped my quiver to my back before heading down the fire escape. I wandered around Times Square for about an hour before heading off to find another roof to sit on another roof top. I perched myself on the edge of the roof and watched business men trudge down the streets on the way to work.

I sat there for hours, people watching to temporally wash away the images of my dream. I don't know how long I crouched there, but the streets began to get busier as the sun got higher. It was around one when something interesting happened.

There was smoke rising out of the manhole covers that were spread across the streets. It was thick grey smoke that was pouring into the streets. People walking down the streets paused and looked curiously at the smoke. I slowly rose to my feet, my eyes locked on the smoke.

Suddenly, the covers started to shake. The shaking and jiggling grew faster and as quickly as it started it stopped. I relaxed a little bit, than the manhole covers shot straight up in the air. The covers were quickly followed by a huge stream of lava that came bursting out of the hole. As soon as the lava droplets hit the ground, they melted into creatures. Slowly, the creatures began to fill the streets of New York.

I grabbed an arrow from my quiver and nocked it. A small smile formed on my face as I pulled the string back.

**A/N: Well, that is the end of chapter 7. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Leave a review, I'd love to hear what you guys think. Till next time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hey guys, it's been a whilehasn't it. Sorry about that I was on vacation. Thanks to SherlockMoriartyHouse500IQ and my friend Penguin for editing this for me. Thanks for being patient with me and enjoy the chapter!**

**Natasha POV**

I was slowly closing in on Stark. I had him pressed against the wall with nowhere to run. I glared at him as I stalked forward. Fear was dancing in his eyes as he stuttered out 'ummms' and 'uhhhhhs'. I stopped a couple inches away from him, clenching and unclenching my fists. Tony's eyes were locked on my hands. I raised my fist and Tony squeezed his eyes shut and pressed himself closer to the wall.

"I am truly sorry to interrupt this," Jarvis's electronic voice echoed through the tower, "but Direct Fury is on line one. He says it's urgent."

The rest of the team started to make their way to the briefing room. Tony kept nervously glancing from me to the team. While he was distracted, I slammed my fist into his ribs and watched as he slid down the wall with one hand wrapped around his middle, gasping for breath.

"There's more where that came from, Stark," I growled before turning to follow the rest of the team.

I calmly walked into the briefing room and took a seat. The rest of the team kept looking from the door to me, each member's face displaying puzzlement.

"Tony will be here momentarily," I said to their unasked question. "He's just…..catching his breath."

The team accepted that as a viable answer and went back to talking amongst themselves. I, on the other hand, was staring at the chair that Clint should be occupying. I knew he could take care of himself; he was, after all, a sniper trained to be alone. _'Where are you Clint?'_

I had been so tuned in on my thoughts that I failed to notice that Tony had finally entered the room. The team was staring at me as if they were waiting for an answer to a question.

"Are we all ready?" Steve repeated.

We nodded in response.

"JARVIS, open up communications on video line one and secure it," Tony said to the AI.

Not even a minute after Tony had said that, the SHIELD logo appeared on the screen. We didn't have to wait long before Fury appeared on the screen.

"There is a situation down town," Fury said. "Twenty minutes ago, a group of what appears to be men made of lava came up out of the manholes about two blocks north west of Times Square. We don't know what their intentions are, but these Lava Men are causing quite a commotion. Take a look at the live footage."

Fury's image faded off the screen and was replaced with live feed from the street. We had an eagle eye's view of them at first. They looked like little pebbles running around the streets of New York, setting fires, overturning cars, and causing general public chaos. As the camera zoomed in closer we could see that the Lava Men were made up of multiple lava rocks stuck together and they were all in groups of four or five.

"As you can see," Fury's voice droned over the video, "There doesn't seem to be a leader present. I would like The Avengers to get down town, assess the situation, and handle it as you deem fit. "

"Suit up," Steve commanded.

With those words, we all got up and did as the good Captain said.

We met on top of the tower in less than ten minutes. From the roof we could see the smoke from the fires swirling upwards. Orange flames licked the skyline, illuminating the grim scene with a crimson glow.

"Okay guys," Captain America said. "We need a plan of action before we get down town."

"I'll take to the sky," Iron Man stated. "Keep the Lava Men contained within a two block radius and help people trapped."

"That sounds good. Black Widow you're with me on the ground; first, I want to find out what their intentions are before we do anything too rash, so Hawk…" the Captain started, but he stopped himself halfway through when he realized the archer was absent. Steve quickly regained his train of thought and continued. "Bruce, I don't want you to become the Hulk until we are certain that we can't handle the situation peacefully, so wait until I give the signal before you start smashing. Iron Man, stay in the sky and cover me while I try to find their leader."

We all nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's go and kick some Lava Men butt."

Since Bruce hadn't Hulked out yet, he hitched a ride with Tony, while Steve and I were left to get there on our own. It was a good thing that the super solider serum and my SHIELD training allowed us to get there quickly, without getting exhausted.

The closer we got the smoke, the more cautious we became. We went from sprinting down the streets to creeping like a shadow in an instant. Steve and I peered around the edge of a building and saw a group of them wrecking havoc on an office building. They didn't seem to know that we were there. Once we saw this, Steve signaled to me that he was going to approach them and try to catch them by surprise. I nodded and drew one of my guns from its holster so that I could cover him.

Steve stayed close to the buildings as he slowly crept up on the unsuspecting Lava Men. I kept my gun trained on the group of rocks the whole time. I could hear Tony circling above, not low enough for the Lava Men to pick up on him, but low enough to come to Captain America's aid if needed. He was about five feet away from them when one of them turned around. It pointed at Steve and started yelling to his buddies in some strange language. Steve put his hands up in the international "I surrender" position, and the Lava Men stopped their frantic babbling. They eyed him curiously as he began to speak.

"I'm Captain America and I would like to speak with your leader."

The Lava Men were standing rigid, eyeing Steve suspiciously, and ready to attack if needed. They glared at Steve for a while longer before one of them spoke up.

"We want to speak with your leader," the Lava Man hissed.

"You are speaking to him," Captain America responded coolly. "Now, why are you attacking Earth?"

The group of Lava Men whispered quietly among themselves as Steve waited patiently for an answer.

"We are here to destroy the surface men's home like they have done to our home. Your constant construction and normal everyday habits have destroyed our underground caves and we are here to take vengeance against the surface men!"

"Why don't you just take me to your leader and we'll discuss matters…."

"Don't bother trying to help us now, Surface Man; you've already had the chance to fix this, now it's our turn to destroy!"

With that, the Lava Men attacked. I sprung from my hiding place just as Steve flung his shield at them and knocked every single one of them down.

"Iron Man," Steve said into the comm. "Time to get to work."

"Roger that," Tony replied to us before we saw a flash of red and gold head off in the direction of where the center of the fight was.

Storm clouds were beginning to gather in the horizon, and Steve and I approached the center of the fight. By the time we got there, Tony had already done a pretty good job of creating a perimeter around the area and the Hulk was aiding him by smashing the Lava Men who strayed too far from it. Captain America and I jumped right into action.

It didn't take me long to discover that the Lava Man were immune to bullets. I holstered my gun and switched to hand to hand combat. Steve was making good use of his shield by taking out five or six of them at a time. The Lava Men were no match for Iron Man's repulsor technology. Many of them lay dead on the ground with holes through their middle.

At first in the battle between the Avengers and the Lava Men, we had the upper hand. That was until the Lava Men began to fall back and regroup. They began to attack us in small groups. The rapid fire groups of Lava Men attacking us turned the tables around in the Lava Men's favor. Both Steve and I were covered in Lava Men while Iron Man and the Hulk were dodging the fireballs being tossed at them. As soon as I got one off of me another one would take its place. I felt like I was drowning in rocks.

Just as I was about to be attacked by a whole new group of Lava Men, they were blown to bits by a flash of dazzling white light. My first thought was that it was some new Iron Man weapon, but I looked up to see Thor smashing his way through the Lava Men with his trusty hammer. When the Thunder God reached me, he extended his hand to me. I graciously accepted it and he helped me up off the ground.

"Thanks, Thor," I said breathlessly.

"It was my genuine pleasure," Thor said in his normal booming voice. "Now, I do believe Captain America requires our assistance."

I looked over to see Steve struggling against four Lava Men who had ganged up on him. We both made our way as quickly as we could, Thor whacking Lava Men as we ran. Thor took care of the two block heads that were pulling on the Captains arms while I jumped on the back of the one trying to snatch his shield.

I startled that Lava Man enough to cause him to stumble back away from Steve. I jabbed him in the neck with my infamous "Widow's Bite" electric shock. Normally that would throw any ordinary villain off balance, but all this seemed to do was make him angrier. The Lava Man flipped me off his back and I landed with a thud on the ground. I swiftly rolled on my left side to avoid be scorched by a stream of fire. As I kicked myself off the ground I was able to catch him in the chest, but that did nothing but stun him for a second before he came after me again. The Lava Man began to throw fire balls at me that I easily dodged. Then, he stopped. The Lava Man was standing about ten feet away from me just staring at me. Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet became hot. I glanced down to see that the pavement was bubbling; it was beginning to turn to molten lava.

I tried to life my feet up off the ground, but I couldn't they were stuck there. Panic began to rise inside of me. I couldn't escape. I kept struggling against the molten rock, but that only caused me to sink further down into the slowly melting surface. Abruptly, something whizzed over my right shoulder. I looked behind me to see what it was, but all I saw was Thor and Captain America fending off a pack of Lava Men while Iron Man shot them from above. The Hulk was busy playing Lava Men bowling as he rolled one of the Lava Men up and tossed him down the street. When I looked back, the Lava Men who was formally attacking me had fallen to the ground with a single arrow penetrating his eye.

'_Clint…'_

**A/N: Well that's all for chapter 8. Hoped you enjoyed. This is also my last update before school starts up again, all future updates will be sporadic and I'd like to apologize ahead a time for that. Please leave a review I'd love to know what you guys think. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Wow, it's been a while. So sorry about the long wait, but life and writer's block just attacked me. A special thanks to my beta's DirectionallyChallengedKensh i and MichaelaTheUchiha for making sure this chapter is ready. Thanks for being patient with me and enjoy the chapter.**

**Natasha POV**

Arrows whizzed through the sky. I watched them sail and hit their mark every time. I kept following the arrows' trajectory, trying to find Clint's hiding spot, but each shot seemed to come from a different direction. That meant he was jumping from roof top to roof top. I watched as one arrow lodged itself in the ground and exploded a few seconds later, taking out at least a dozen Lava Men. Bodies were tossed around, charred limbs falling limply to earth.

Slowly but surely, we drove the Lava Men back towards the manhole from which they came. Once the last one had scrambled down into the ground, Steve kicked the cover back on the hole. He turned back to me and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Job well done, guys," he said to all of us. "Black Widow, do you know where Hawkeye is?"

I sent him a sad look and shook my head. "Sorry Cap, all I know is that he was on a roof somewhere watching us and jumped in when he saw I was in danger. He's probably gone, by now."

He nodded thoughtfully before talking into the com. "Stark, what is the Hulk's position?"

"He's down by Central Park," Iron Man responded.

"Well, go get him and bring him back here," Steve told him.

"Uhhh, Cap…we got a major problem…" Stark suddenly said into the com, hesitant and peeved sounding. I huffed and Steve rolled his eyes. A major problem in Stark's world could mean the Hulk had decided to take a nap in the middle of Central Park, or that his suit had gotten damaged by a Lava Man. It was impossible to tell by the suave tone of the billionaire's voice.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that, Tony," Steve prompted patiently.

"Well, it appears the Lava Men have not only regrouped but brought reinforcements along," Tony stated. "They are surrounding Central Park; the people inside the park are trapped."

Captain America stood there for a few seconds, contemplating the best plan of action. "Okay, Stark go ahead and help the Hulk get rid of some of those Lava guys and get as many people out of the park as possible. Black Widow and I will be there as soon as we can."

"Roger that, Captain."

As we were rushing towards the park, I thought saw a flash of black sprinting across the roof tops parallel to us. We jogged through the city: cars and people were a blur of color as we sprinted, gasping for breath but determined not to slow down. Every few minutes or so, I would glance up at adjacent roof tops to see if I could see that small flash of black again. I never did.

By the time we reached Central Park, it was pure chaos. There were people running every way, and Lava Men seemed to occupy every inch of the park. Iron Man was flying a few feet above the Lava Men's heads, shooting them with his repulsor ray as he swooped over them. Occasionally he would grab a civilian and fly them to safety.

The Hulk was standing in the middle of the group. The Lava Men were tentative to approach him, but when one of them was brave enough to take a step towards him the Hulk would snatch him off the ground and throw him into a section of more Lava Men. The Lava Men left standing around him would quickly scatter and the Hulk would lumber to another section and continue smashing everything.

Steve and I quickly joined the fight: we tried to stay together but after a few moments, we were separated. There seemed to be more Lava Men here this time than there were at Times square, but I used the Lava Men's lack of speed and agility to my advantage. I let the strange creatures crash into each other as I jumped and twisted away from them.

I soon lost sight of Steve in the crowd of rust colored rocks, as I was completely surrounded by Lava Men. They were slowly advancing towards me. I had no means of escape and no way to call for back up, since everyone was probably in a similar situation.

I could feel the temperature rising around me as the Lava Men crept closer. I could hear their rock-made joints grinding against each other with every step. The panic was rising inside me as I continued to search for an escape route, but there was no way out… but wait… if I could just jump on top of them, then I could just walk across their heads to the tree that was a few yards away.

Taking a deep breath, I backed up as far as I could go and just as the Lava Men behind me were about to grab me I took off running. Just before I crashed into the Lava Men in front of me, I sprung off the ground and landed unstably on one of their heads.

I kept bouncing from head to head as I slowly made my way across the field of Lava Men. I was almost to the tree when the Lave Men figured out what I was doing. Just as I was about to move to the next head, the Lava Men parted to create a hole in the mob. I waved my arms in an attempt to keep my balance on the head I was currently perched on, but I lost my balance and crashed to the ground below when something crashed into my body and carried me though the air. I landed about mid way up in the tree.

After getting my breath back, I looked down to see the Lava Men were now crowded around the tree: they were glaring up at me with harsh, beady, red eyes. One of the Lava Men lunged for the tree and just as he was about to slam into the trunk, something flew from above, struck him, and he fell back with a thud.

I looked all around me to see where the projectile came from. My eyes widened when I saw who was crouching just a few feet above me.

"Hey, Nat," Clint said quietly as he strung another arrow and sent it flying into a Lava Man's eye.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed chapter 9. I'm not sure when I will be able to get chapter 10 posted since I just started a new school semester, but I am hoping it will be soon. In the meantime, leave a review I love hearing what you guys think. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hey guys, here's the next chapter. This took longer than I expected to get written thanks to school. A special thanks to my betas DirectionallyChallengedKensh i and MichaelaTheUchiha for making this the best that it can be. Well, I will stop rambling now and let you guys enjoy the chapter.**

**Clint POV**

I had no intention of joining the fight once I saw Steve show up at Times Square. The team didn't need me: there were four extremely talented heroes on the team and all of them were far more trustworthy then I am. So, I just planned on hanging back and watching and maybe shoot a stray or two if the Block Heads wandered too far from where the main fighting was happening.

But when that pile of rocks started creeping towards Nat's turned back, I was instantly up on me feet. I drew an arrow and strung it just as they started fighting. I tracked the pair of them with my bow, but was never able to get a clear enough shot to fire. It wasn't until after the Lava Man stopped throwing fire balls at her that I was finally able to accurately set up my shot. Just as she started sinking, I fired and watched with satisfaction as the arrow glided over her shoulder and into the creature's eye.

I gazed on as Natasha pulled herself off the ground and began looking around for who saved her. I could see her shoulders tense up when she saw the arrow. I stepped back into the shadows of the roof top as her gaze swept the city skyline, searching for me.

I continued to fire off arrows. I figured since Nat already knew I was there, why not? I moved around the rooftop and even jumped to different buildings as I shot. I knew that even with the fight going on, Nat would be searching for me by looking for the origin of the shot. Not long after I joined the fight, the Lava Men began to gradually retreat.

Once the last one disappeared down the man hole, I slung my bow across my shoulder and watched Steve and Nat from my current rooftop perch. I could tell they were talking about me just by how Nat was acting. Whenever the team asked about me in the tower, she would tense up ever so slightly and she would send an icy glare at whoever was asking. All I could see from the roof was that she tensed up after Steve said something to her.

Steve was probably asking her if I was aiming for anyone other than the enemy when I was shooting. He was probably thinking all the Lava Men I took out were by accident because I missed him. I watched as Nat searched the roof tops again, her eyes lingered a split second longer on building I was crouching on and for a moment I thought she had spotted me. But, when she looked down at the ground and shook her head, I knew I was safe.

I was making my way towards the fire escape when I saw Steve and Natasha take off running. I looked to the sky and saw Stark's armor flash in the sunlight as he sped off. From the direction he was heading, I guessed they were all going to Central Park…but why would they go there?

I followed Iron Man with my eyes as I climbed on top a couple crates that were on the roof. From there, I got a better view of the city. I faced towards Central Park and inwardly cursed when I saw the dark colored blobs moving around the perimeter of the park.

I jumped down from the crates and began to walk across the roof away from the park. When I got to the fire escape, I looked back over my shoulder towards the park. They don't need me, I kept telling myself as I put one foot down on the metal ladder rung.

"Damn-it," I said harshly as I slammed my palm down on the edge of the building.

As soon as I whipped that arrow out of my quiver to help Nat, I had made myself part of this fight. I couldn't just leave it unfinished. I can always just sit on a roof near the park and jump into action if needed. With that, I stepped back on to the roof and took off running across them to Central Park.

I quickly caught up to Nat and Steve and I made the mistake of running parallel to them for only a couple seconds, but that was long enough for Natasha to look up. Once I saw her head move in my direction, I slowed my pace a bit, in hopes of staying unnoticed by her.

As we continued towards the enemy, I kept one rooftop behind the pair of heroes, but I could tell from the way Nat kept glancing up at the rooftops alongside her that she had spotted me. Or she thought she had spotted me.

A few blocks from Central Park, I slowed my pace to a jog and began scoping out the ideal viewing location. There was a cluster of trees near the middle of the park, and if I could just get there, I would be able to watch the whole thing from the top of a tree and be able to jump into action quickly. With all the Lava Men invading the park, it would be easy for me to slip in unnoticed. I descended down the fire escape and tentatively made my way towards the park.

By the time I reached the park, the Lava Men had flooded from the outskirts of the park to inside it. Instead of using my bow to attack them, I opted to unsheathe my hidden dagger and use that to fend off the creatures.

I was able to make it to the trees with minimal effort: Hulk helped with that. Just as I entered the park, he came tearing down the middle, swiping out Lava Men as he went, and the ones he didn't knock out of the way scattered. It made getting to the tiny forest easier then I had expected.

I walked a few feet past the tree line before I began looking for a suitable tree to climb. Once I found one, I replaced my dagger back into its sheathe, grabbed the lowest branches of the tree, and hauled myself up. I crouched in the tree with my bow gripped loosely in my fingers with an arrow already strung just in case one of the rock piles came too close for my liking.

During round two of the battle, I couldn't pin point where any of the Avengers were: they were lost in a sea of lava rocks. It wasn't 'till I saw Nat's red hair in the center of a group of them that I got ready to spring into action. I was just about to fire a smoke bomb arrow into the group when Nat emerged from the crowd and began unsteadily moving across the tops of the Lava Men.

I stood up on the branch I was on and peered across the park. My eyes locked on the lone tree that she was heading towards. I jumped down from the tree I was in and began running through the rocks, shoving them out of my way as I went. I then completed the same move she had by jumping on top of them and running across them. As I was moving I changed my arrow tip so that when I fired my bow, I would be firing an arrow that acted like a grappler hook.

I was only a few yards behind her when she faltered: she was waving her arms in a futile attempt to keep her balance. I lined up my shot and fired it high into the tree trunk and slung my bow across my shoulder. I stomped down hard on the shoulders of one of the creatures and swung on the string towards Nat. I snagged her around the middle just as she began to fall. I landed a couple branches above her and as soon as my feet hit the branch I was pulling another arrow out of my quiver.

The Lava Men were circling the tree and glaring at Natasha just as one was about to lunge at her, I shot him dead. Her head swiveled up to me and her eyes widened.

"Hey, Nat," I said as I let another arrow fly.

She continued to stare at me as I let three more arrows sail. I could tell from the emotions that were swirling in her eyes that she was deciding what she was going to say to me. I fired off another two arrows before she said something.

"Where have you been?"

I gave her a sideways glance. "I was touring the city."

She crossed her arms and fixed me with a hard stare: apparently she didn't buy it.

"Fine, I decided to take a walk and just _happened_ to not come back," I told her.

Her glare got darker. "You don't just disappear after almost _falling_ off a roof, Clint. How was I supposed to know what happened to you. Huh? We were all looking for you aft…"

I cut her off right there. "No, you were looking for me. The rest of them were just acting as if they cared about where I was. You can think and hope all you want that they like me, that they want you around. But, I know for a fact that I am not a welcome member of the team. They don't want me anywhere near that tower. So why should I stick around? I am better off without them."

She stared at me, mouth agape as I shot a few more arrows into the thinning crowd of block heads. I glanced up as Iron Man streaked across the sky shooting down Lava Men as he went, and I could hear the Hulk tearing though the park smashing every moving object in sight. I had no idea where Cap was until I saw his shield flash out of the corner of my eye. The battle was coming to an end; if I didn't get out of here soon, I would have to face the other Avengers.

I shot another arrow at a Lava Man who was attempting to climb up the tree before I started to climb down.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm leaving," I said as I jumped down to the ground.

"What do you mean by that?" Natasha asked as she too clambered down the trunk.

"I'm better off without them, I have always worked better alone anyway so why stay in a place where I am clearly not welcomed?"

"What does that mean? Of course they want you around. When Steve was telling us what he wanted us to do at the beginning of the battle he said your name because you are part of the team."

I scowled ay her. "He probably said that because he was working in autopilot and Steve wouldn't go out and say he doesn't want someone around, but body language says it all."

"You're impossible when you get like this, Clint," she said as I started walking away. "Don't let Stark get in your head. Whatever he said to you or about you isn't true and you know it."

I gave her one last look over my shoulder before I ran off.

**A/N: Thanks for reading; I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please leave a review I love hearing what your thoughts on my writing. Well, I hope to get the next chapter up soon so until then leave a comment bellow. **


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